Fig. 1: miR-181a promotes transformation of FTSECs in vitro.

a Phase contrast micrographs showing loss of contact inhibition in the FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cells. All cells were plated at the same time at equal density and allowed to grow for 10 days. b Graph showing miR-181a expression levels for the FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cell lines. c Graph showing increases in cell viability over a 10-day period for the FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cells. Significance values are color coded to match the corresponding FT pmiR-181a cell line. d Colony formation assay showing increased survival and colony formation for the FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cells with quantification (below). Colonies were stained with CellTag 700 at 10 days. Dashed green lines denote the culture plate well boundaries. e Micrographs showing increased anchorage independent growth of FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cells. f Quantification of anchorage independent growth of FT pmiR-181a vs pscram-miR cells. Data represent N = 5. g Bar graph of the %Cell Cycle populations for the FT pscram-miR and FT pmiR-181a cells. All data are representative of N = 3 independent experiments unless otherwise stated. The measure of center for the error bars is given as the mean value unless otherwise stated. The statistical test used for data analysis is the two-sided Student’s t test unless otherwise stated. Error bars indicate ± standard deviation unless otherwise stated. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.005, ***p < 0.0005.